A bandwagon with lots of empty seats

I’m not sure, but I suspect a serious degree of tone-deafness infects the ostensible leadership of the Republican Party. Those leaders are currently throwing a group hissy-fit over an Obama Administration health care ruling (click on image for video).

Under the 2009 Affordable Care Act, most health insurance plans — beginning Aug. 1, 2012 — are required to cover preventive services for women including contraceptive services without a co-pay, co-insurance or a deductible.

In January, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that employers who, based on religious beliefs, do not currently provide contraceptive coverage in their insurance plan, will be given until Aug. 1, 2013, to comply with the new law. Churches and other houses of worship are exempt, but hospitals and other institutions are not.

Churches and houses of worship are exempt. Furthermore, the act does not require that contractives be imposed, only that the be made available. The choice is up to the women. And if Boeher and his tribe stopped a moment to think, or to order up some research, they would notice that lay Catholics — despite the huffing and puffing of their bishops — are largely in favor of, and make use of, contraceptive services.

So what the Republicans are doing, in long-range political terms, is winning over the bishops and alienating the laity. Basic question: which group includes the more voters?